TO: TRANSPORTATION AND
ENVIRONMENT COMMITTEE
FROM: John Ristow
SUBJECT: Move San José Plan Annual
Report
DATE: May 12, 2025
Approved Date:
5/22/2025
RECOMMENDATION
Accept the Move San José Plan Annual Report.
BACKGROUND
Building on the 2011 General Plan and Climate Smart San José (2018), the Move San José (MSJ) Plan, adopted in August 2022, advances equitable, low-emission transportation by prioritizing walking, biking, and transit. The Plan includes nine goal areas, 26 implementation strategies, and 36 key performance indicators (KPIs) designed to measure and guide progress across infrastructure, mobility, and access (see Appendix A, Figures 1-3). For example, the key performance indicators that measure the Access for All goal include measurements of bike network connectivity and cost of transportation as a percentage of income. These indicators promote the Access for All goal through their targeted measurement of access and equity. The full list of key performance indicators is provided in Appendix A, Figure 4.
ANALYSIS
This year’s Annual Report draws from the newly enhanced Decision Support System to provide clearer insights into changing travel behavior and the impact of planned projects.
Decision Support System
Implementation of the MSJ Plan is informed by the Decision Support System.
Comprised of nearly 400 planned transportation projects sourced from major planning efforts (i.e., Downtown Transportation Plan, West San José MTIP, En Movimiento, and Better Bike Plan 2025), the Decision Support System uses various sources of data including “big data” to measure key performance indicators from the MSJ Plan and understand changing conditions. This helps decision-makers select the best strategies COMMITTEE AGENDA: 6/2/25
ITEM: (d)2.
TRANSPORTATION AND ENVIRONMENT COMMITTEE
May 12, 2025
Subject: Move San José Plan Annual Update
and projects that address various deficiencies in the transportation system. An initial version of the Decision Support System was developed alongside the MSJ Plan in 2021-22.
Since the Committee's last update, the Department of Transportation has completed a major milestone: the launch of Decision Support System 2.0 in May 2025. While not a determinate system that makes decisions on its own, the Decision Support System is a tool that informs and supports more transparent, data-guided decision-making by helping staff evaluate and prioritize transportation projects based on their potential to advance the City’s equity, safety, sustainability, and mobility goals. Decision Support System 2.0 now plays a foundational role in monitoring performance, prioritizing investments, and identifying targeted strategies that can deliver the greatest benefit, based on enhanced data integration and project ranking compared to the original system.
A major upgrade in Decision Support System 2.0 is the integration of regularly updated big data, which the City began purchasing in January 2025. This data feeds into the system to reflect current conditions citywide—including travel behavior, traffic trends, and geographic disparities—and allows the Decision Support System to forecast project outcomes and monitor performance over time. These insights help staff understand which strategies are most effective and where additional investments are needed.
To improve transparency and public engagement, a public-facing version of the Decision Support System is expected to be released in Fiscal Year 2025-2026. This new feature will make it easier for residents to stay informed, see where improvements are coming, and better understand how decisions are made.
Performance Metrics Overview
This section presents the current status of Move San José’s progress, drawing from the Decision Support System key performance indicators and recent travel behavior data. A snapshot of district-level performance in each of the nine goal areas when compared to the citywide average can be found in Appendix B, Figure 5.
Transportation Safety
Currently, transportation safety continues to be characterized by the number of people killed or seriously injured (KSI) in traffic crashes, particularly among vulnerable road users such as pedestrians and bicyclists, in line with the City’s Vision Zero program.
Between 2020 and 2024, there were 1,332 KSI citywide, with 556 involving people walking or biking (372 pedestrian KSI and 184 bicyclist KSI), averaging 74 and 37 per year, respectively. These figures have remained relatively unchanged in recent years, underscoring the persistent risk faced by non-motorized travelers despite evolving infrastructure and travel patterns.
TRANSPORTATION AND ENVIRONMENT COMMITTEE
May 12, 2025
Subject: Move San José Plan Annual Update
Decision Support System analysis of crash data also shows that the average number of KSI crashes occurring within 100 feet of Priority Safety Corridors—unadjusted for corridor length—has remained steady, indicating continued safety risks along corridors already designated as high injury. While infrastructure improvements may be helping to stabilize overall injury totals, behavioral risk factors like speeding and driver inattentiveness remain key contributors to crash severity.
San José’s citywide pedestrian stress score, which measures how stressful the walking environment feels to users, reinforces broad perceptions of unsafe conditions. A citywide score of 59.3 out of 100 (100 indicating very stressful conditions and 0 indicating a low stress environment), with districts 3 through 7 all exceeding a score of 60 (see Appendix B, Figure 6), underscore the need for complementary enforcement, education, and design strategies.
Environmental Progress
Progress toward the City’s climate goals is reflected in both electric vehicle (EV) adoption and access to emerging mobility options. EV adoption in San José has reached 6%, a 1% increase from the previous year and over 170% growth since 2019.
However, EV adoption remains uneven, ranging from 2.9% (District 5) to 8.2% (District 10), highlighting potential barriers to clean mobility access. Publicly available charging infrastructure is expanding, with just over 600 EV chargers citywide (1.6 per 1,000 residents), according to the federal Energy Department. This underscores staff efforts to increase the availability of publicly accessible chargers, especially in underserved parts of the City. As of 2024, a high-level geographic analysis showed at least 30% of households are located within a quarter mile of a public charger, with goals to increase that coverage to 40% by 2030.
Daily vehicle miles traveled (VMT) per capita has increased to 17.2—up 5% from the previous year and 13% since 2019. San José’s General Plan goal is to reduce VMT to 11 per capita per day. The current trend is heading in the wrong direction. Despite this trend, mode shift potential remains strong: nearly 29% of all trips are under two miles which makes them ripe for potential mode shift to biking, walking, and transit.
One avenue of VMT reduction is the use of shared bikes and scooters. Currently access to these emerging mobility options remains limited. With just 83 docked bikeshare stations, primarily located in Districts 3, 4, and 6, only 12% of households live within a quarter mile of a docking station. Limited availability in most neighborhoods remains a barrier to first-/last-mile alternatives, especially for short trips. The city has received grants to expand the bikeshare system by 32 stations.
Multimodal Access and Equity
San José’s ability to deliver a complete, connected multi-modal network varies by geography, with the most pronounced gaps found in underserved areas. While 84% of households citywide now live within a half mile of high-quality transit—a 20%
TRANSPORTATION AND ENVIRONMENT COMMITTEE
May 12, 2025
Subject: Move San José Plan Annual Update
improvement in five years—districts 2, 8, and 10 remain below 70%. Access to employment by transit is also limited: only 37% of jobs reachable by a 30-minute drive are also accessible by transit within the same timeframe—highlighting a significant barrier for transit-dependent workers.
These access limitations are compounded by affordability challenges. Residents in Equity Priority Communities1 spend on average 14% of their income on transportation costs—compared to 10% citywide—and also exhibit 11% higher daily VMT per capita.
These conditions may reflect longer travel distances, fewer mobility options, or other structural barriers to non-driving modes. In many cases, driving is not a choice but a necessity, placing a disproportionate financial burden on lower-income households.
Infrastructure gaps further limit multimodal accessibility. San José’s Complete Streets Index, which measures how well the network accommodates pedestrians, cyclists, motorists, and transit riders, stands at 36%. This means that while at least 80% of streets have complete sidewalks, only about a third offer the full combination of sidewalks, bikeways, and transit access —leaving large portions of the city without truly multimodal streets, particularly for residents who cannot or do not drive due to disability, age, or income.
Travel Behavior Trends
Since the COVID-19 pandemic, travel behavior in San José has evolved in significant and sometimes unexpected ways. While some patterns have reverted to pre-pandemic norms, others appear to reflect long-term shifts in how people move around the city.
Commute trends continue to recover slowly: single-occupancy vehicle commuting has declined 3.3% from 82% in 2018 to 79.3% in 2023 (see Appendix B, Figure 7), yet transit, biking, and walking mode shares remain below pre-pandemic levels. Work-fromhome trends may be having a lasting impact on daily travel and has likely contributed to reduced overall commute demand.
Data from the City’s new big data subscription confirms that single-occupancy vehicle use continues to dominate total travel behavior—not just commuting. Currently, 79% of all trips in San José are made by Single Occupancy Vehicle, followed by 12% by carpooling (12%), walking (7%), biking (0.9%), and transit (0.6%). These figures reflect limited competitiveness of sustainable modes and the enduring appeal of driving across trip types.
VMT patterns reinforce this trend. After dipping between 2019 and 2022, daily VMT per capita surged in 2023, with total daily VMT reaching 17.7 million in 2024—the highest in five years (see Appendix B, Figure 8). This uptick underscores the challenge of meeting the City’s VMT reduction goals: 25% by 2030 and 45% by 2040 (relative to 2017 levels). 1 Equity Priority Communities are census tracts that have a significant concentration of underserved populations, such as households with low incomes and people of color. https://mtc.ca.gov/planning/transportation/access-equitymobility/equity-priority-communities
TRANSPORTATION AND ENVIRONMENT COMMITTEE
May 12, 2025
Subject: Move San José Plan Annual Update
Broader travel behavior also highlights persistent disparities in car dependence.
Residents in Equity Priority Communities average 19.12 daily VMT per capita—11% above the citywide average—despite relying more on transit and carpooling. This apparent paradox reflects systemic barriers such as longer travel distances, limited proximity to jobs and services, and infrastructure gaps. For example, districts 8 and 10 continue to show low access to high-quality transit seen, reinforcing driving as the Together, these trends demonstrate that infrastructure alone may not be sufficient to shift behavior. Sustained policy and programmatic investments—alongside targeted service improvements—will be essential to making non-driving modes more viable and feel safer, especially for underserved communities. The Decision Support System is critical in identifying where these needs are greatest and which interventions can deliver the most impact.
Data-Driven Project Prioritization and Investments
The City’s investment strategy is increasingly shaped by insights from the Decision Support System, which evaluates nearly 400 planned projects based on their potential impact across key transportation goals. While the Decision Support System does not determine final project selection, it provides a structured, data-informed framework to prioritize where resources can achieve the greatest benefits—particularly for safety, equity, access, and sustainability.
High-Priority Planned Projects
Top-ranked projects from the Decision Support System have a strong focus on corridor safety, multimodal access, and mobility equity. Notably, complete street projects along Stevens Creek Boulevard and Winchester Boulevard aim to reduce car dependency in areas with high single-occupancy vehicle mode share and limited micromobility infrastructure. In district 5, projects along King Road and Story Road respond to high pedestrian stress and strong potential for short-trip mode shift.
Beyond the top tier, the Decision Support System is informing the next generation of strategic investments. These include:
San Antonio Street–US 101 Overcrossing project: Adds a multi-use path connection over US-101, directly addressing east-west mobility barriers. Protected bike lanes along Market Street: Fills key network gaps downtown and improve safety for active modes.
Julian Bikeway to BART Capital project: Enhances first-/last-mile bike access to regional transit, supporting economic mobility.
These projects are not simply next in line—they are responses to measurable system gaps identified through performance data.
TRANSPORTATION AND ENVIRONMENT COMMITTEE
May 12, 2025
Subject: Move San José Plan Annual Update
Corridor Safety Investments
In parallel, the City is advancing corridor-scale improvements, that directly respond to Decision Support System-flagged crash risks. Projects like the Story-Willow-Keyes Corridor Improvements, McKee Road Vision Zero Corridor Improvements, and Tully Road Safety bring protected bike lanes, safer crossings, and pedestrian enhancements to high-injury streets—especially in underserved areas.
At the neighborhood-scale, projects like the Mt. Pleasant Pedestrian & Bike Safety Project and the recently completed San Antonio Street Safety Project bolster local connectivity. The San Antonio project converted quick-build elements into permanent traffic-calming—traffic circles and high-visibility crosswalks—that contributed to a 16% reduction in vehicle volumes and zero reported severe crashes, aligning with Vision Zero goals.
Mode Shift and Micromobility Strategies
To accelerate mode shift among short trips, the City is also expanding micromobility and transit integration—particularly in “service deserts” identified by the Decision Support System. A forthcoming (FY2025-2026) grant-funded bikeshare expansion in districts 4 and 5 will add 40 stations and 700 e-bikes to neighborhoods like Mayfair and Berryessa.
On the transit side, the City-wide centralized transit signal timing project, Monterey Road Transit Lane and Story Road Complete Streets projects are expected to improve multimodal connectivity and reduce travel times in areas with limited transit competitiveness.
Additional targeted projects like the San Fernando Better Bikeway Project and the Speed Safety Camera Pilot serve as scalable safety models. The pilot, set to launch in FY2025–2026, will deploy up to 33 automated speed cameras on high-injury streets, school zones, and corridors with histories of racing or sideshows. By targeting driver behavior through consistent, equitable enforcement, the initiative seeks to reduce crash severity, improve compliance, and protect vulnerable users—especially in Decision Support System prioritized risk zones.
Coordinated, Data-Driven Strategy
Together, these investments represent a deliberate, coordinated strategy that aligns capital delivery with the City’s most pressing performance gaps. While project advancement also depends on factors like funding, community input, and readiness, the Decision Support System enables staff to make transparent, data-informed investment decisions that move San José closer to its climate, equity, and mode share goals— project by project.
TRANSPORTATION AND ENVIRONMENT COMMITTEE
May 12, 2025
Subject: Move San José Plan Annual Update
COORDINATION
This memorandum has been coordinated with the City Attorney's Office and the City Manager's Budget Office.
/s/
JOHN RISTOW
Director of Transportation
For questions, please contact Ramses Madou, Division Manager, Planning, Policy, and Sustainability, at [email protected] or (408) 975-3283.
Link to the Move San José plan: https://gis.sanjoseca.gov/maps/movesj
ATTACHMENTS
APPENDIX A - Move San José Strategies and Goals
APPENDIX B - Move San José 2025 Metrics